Myanmar has one of the most challenging environments for the practice of journalism in Asia.  With its history of military rule and weak civic institutions, the effort to build a strong, independent, and socially responsible press has to contend with draconian laws, rabid intolerance, repression and persecution.  It is an environment that calls for journalists of uncommon will, professional independence, and a strong sense of justice.

Such a journalist is forty-one-year-old KO SWE WIN.  Born to a poor family in Yangon, he grew up in politically turbulent times and fell victim to state repression early on.  In 1998, he was a university student when he was arrested with sixty-seven others for participating in a student demonstration and distributing propaganda materials against the ruling military junta.  Sentenced to twenty-one years in jail, he was tortured and starved but would turn prison into a learning experience.  He studied English, deepened his Buddhist faith, and did a lot of meditation.  Released after seven years in prison, he studied journalism, doing an online undergraduate program and with a scholarship, finished a master’s degree in journalism at Hong Kong University in 2009.   He worked for a magazine in Thailand, and then, intent on being “where the action was,” returned to Yangon in 2012.

In Yangon, he started as a stringer for Al Jazeera and New York Times and even set up a short-lived, self-financed internet news service. The first important opportunity came when Myanmar Now was launched in 2015, with seed financing from the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Myanmar Now is an independent online news service focused on long-form investigative reports in both Burmese and English, available for syndication.  With SWE WIN as editor-in-chief since 2016, the news service has built a strong reputation for well-researched, in-depth articles on critically selected, underreported human rights and social justice issues.

SWE WIN has continued to face daunting challenges. In 2017, he criticized a powerful, ultranationalist Buddhist monk, Ashin Wirathu, for purveying “hate speech” and publicly commending the killer of a Muslim human rights activist.  Wirathu, SWE WIN wrote, had desecrated Buddhism and should be punished for endorsing assassination and fomenting hate.  SWE WIN was sued for defamation, physically assaulted by Wirathu’s supporters, and briefly jailed on the trumped-up charge that he tried to leave the country while on bail.  Illustrating how the law can be bent by the powerful, the trial was held in a location that required SWE WIN to take a 780-mile road trip to and from the trial, which was purposely dragged out such that SWE WIN had to do a total of seventy-one trips at great personal inconvenience and cost.  A case of blatant harassment, the judge finally dropped the case on July 2, 2019 for the plaintiff’s protracted non-appearance at court hearings.

SWE WIN and Myanmar Now draw strength from the fact that they are making a difference.  With a current readership of 350,000, the news service is highly regarded for the quality, balance, and depth of its reporting on high-impact issues, including land grabbing, child labor, and abuse of domestic workers.  It exposed anomalies in the Myanmar Human Rights Commission; in a political indoctrination program ran by the army for civil servants; in the secret operation of some fifty prison labor camps where prisoners are made to work in quarries and mines; and in the activities of the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion, a movement of xenophobic, anti-Muslim extremists.  SWE WIN is encouraged that public awareness has been raised and government has responded positively in a number of cases, punishing officials or changing policies.

A growing problem in Myanmar and the world, SWE WIN says, is “intolerance and hostility towards different races and nationalities being exploited as a political weapon.”  “Only the promotion of human rights,” he says, “can help us contain this deplorable trend.”

In electing KO SWE WIN to receive the 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership, the board of trustees recognizes his undaunted commitment to practice independent, ethical, and socially engaged journalism in Myanmar; his incorruptible sense of justice and unflinching pursuit of the truth in crucial but underreported issues; and his resolute insistence that it is in the quality and force of media’s truth-telling that we can convincingly protect human rights in the world.

First, I would like to thank Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for giving me this prestigious award in Asia.

But I feel deeply humbled by the fact that there are so many out there in our country and various parts of the world ”more selfless and more honest than I am but who have been never recognized for the services they render to their respective societies.

I am the seventh person from Myanmar ”and the second journalist ”to receive this award. The first Myanmar journalist and one of the earliest recipients of this award is Mr. Edward Michael Law-Yone, who founded the Nation newspaper in 1948. That was one of the most influential newspapers in Southeast Asia.

After the first military coup in 1962, Michael Law-Yone was jailed for five years and later forced to leave the country. Professional journalism had been lost in our country since then. The state of oppression, which forced Mr. Law-Yone to leave his beloved country, has relaxed to some extent following some democratic changes initiated since 2011.

According to the current constitution, however, the military remains the most dominant force, which controls key ministries and holds one quarter of seats in the legislature.

The predominance of the military’s role, combined with the continued armed clashes in a number of ethnic minorities and the rise of nationalism, is the major challenge facing the independent media in Myanmar.  This situation constantly instills a sense of threat into civil life and the news media circle.

But having passed through various political and social turbulences over the past decades, we have developed a great resilience and a tremendous amount of patience for the problems in our country. None of the people I know in Myanmar expect change to happen overnight, but we have a firm belief that we are not on the right path towards democracy and liberty as long as the supremacy of civilian rule has not come into fruition.

In this context, journalism plays a crucial role ”the kind of journalism that seeks the truth, that protects the fundamental rights of human beings, that is not colored by political and religious dogmas and, above all, that is driven not by animosities against anyone or any entity but by a great compassion for the most unfortunate communities and individuals in a society.

Even though an independent press or press freedom is mostly a by-product of a democratic political system, we are confident that the press can play a vibrant causal role for the growth of democracy and liberty in Myanmar and many other countries in Asia.

In a country known for its rich musical culture and blessed with a surfeit of musical talent, to stand out as singular and indispensable is truly outstanding.  In the Philippines today such a musical leader is RAYMUNDO “RYAN” PUJANTE CAYABYAB.

Born in Manila, one of four siblings, RYAN’s father was a government employee, his mother an opera singer and music teacher. Though the family’s circumstances were modest, theirs was a home filled with music, particularly since his mother took in music students as boarders.  Everyone in the house seemed to be either singing or playing an instrument, and RYAN grew up listening to classical music, opera arias, and traditional native songs.  Heeding his mother’s admonitions to shun the musician’s financially unrewarding career, RYAN took up a business management course, but to help pay for his university studies he took on side jobs as pianist or accompanist for musical artists. The parents of one such artist were so impressed with his talent that they gave RYAN a full scholarship to pursue a degree in music instead.  From this point on, music would be his life-work.

Versatile, a consummate professional, and universally liked, RYAN CAYABYAB is virtually omnipresent in the Philippine music industry today.  For over four decades, his contributions as a composer, arranger, music director, conductor, performer, and educator have been huge.  RYAN started to write music in the late 1970s, making his mark when his signature song “Kay Ganda ng Ating Musika” (How Beautiful is Our Music) won the grand prize in the first Metro Manila Popular Music Festival (Metropop) in 1978 and in an international song festival in South Korea in the same year.  He went on to win in other competitions and performed widely in the Philippines and abroad.  As head and artistic director of the San Miguel Foundation for the Performing Arts, he acted as conductor, arranger, and composer of its award-winning Philharmonic Orchestra and Master Chorale.  Subsequently, he would be involved in training singers and music groups that have won significant national and international recognition.

At home in diverse genres and media—choral and orchestral works, musical theater, opera and ballet, television programs, film scores, commercial recordings of popular music—RYAN has influenced the shaping of Philippine music culture.  An instance is the role he has played in the Original Pilipino Music (OPM) movement to promote a culturally distinct, contemporary Filipino popular music.  The movement arose in the 1970s with the Metropop, continuing to this day with Philippine Pop Music Festival (Philpop).  RYAN has played a leading role in these and other festivals, which have been important in inspiring and promoting thousands of singers and songwriters in the country.

RYAN is driven by a passion to mentor, educate, and contribute to the flourishing of Filipino musical talent.  He has served in the music faculty of the University of the Philippines, runs a music studio with his wife, and has conducted free workshops for thousands of students all across the country. He is a moving force in the Philpop Musicfest Foundation and the Elements Music Camp, major initiatives dedicated to music training, promoting Filipino music abroad, and fostering Filipino cultural identity through music. Honored in 2018 as Philippine National Artist for Music, he was cited for his music that “extols the exuberance of life and human happiness, thus capturing the very essence of our Filipino soul.”

An inspiration and guiding light to many, RYAN says, “The next generation should be better than us for our country to move forward.  For this to happen we must teach them everything we know at every possible instance.  I like teaching, I like sharing what I know, and I like playing music.  When I’m doing all these, I’m very happy.”

In electing RAYMUNDO PUJANTE CAYABYAB to receive the 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes his compositions and performances that have defined and inspired Filipino popular music across generations; his indomitable, undeterred confidence to selflessly seek, mentor and promote young Filipino musical genius for the global stage; and his showing us all that music can indeed instill pride and joy, and unify people across the many barriers that divide them.

The first song I ever wrote was based on a poem I found in the notebook of a school mate. I was twelve years old and a freshman in high school.  I had no idea that this was the start of a creative music writing career. And even if my mother, an opera singer, dissuaded all her children to take up a career in music, it was here that I found my calling. Songwriters are chroniclers who write about their happiness, their sorrows, their surroundings, their country, their aspirations and anxieties. They mirror everything that happens around them, including socio-political changes in society, and write personal stories in the context of their milieu, in a language that transcends time and barriers.

When I was starting out as a teacher at the U.P. College of Music in Diliman, I realized immediately that this was what I would like to do: spend my life teaching music. Teaching all I know, to young musicians. My wife and I even started to operate a small music school, teaching non-degree courses in music performance and creative music writing just to feed a simple desire. A professional musician once asked me, “Aren’t you afraid that by teaching everything you know you are actually divulging trade secrets?”  Because of this remark it became even clearer to me why I wanted to teach. There really are no trade secrets; but even if there were, I would divulge them anyway.

Teaching can transform lives. I want everyone I teach to discover their maximum potential. I also want them to be better than me. And because I think this was the basic track that I wanted to take, I was able to influence many of my younger colleagues in the music industry to adopt the same vision: to enable the new generation of songwriters to be better than our generation, so that our music community can to move forward, and thus bring the entire creative music industry to new heights, and hopefully help the country to move forward by becoming leaders and songwriters of new music for the world to hear.

Another very compelling vision I share with many of my colleagues is this goal to make the Filipino public aware that our original music is not only a form of entertainment but a living tradition. It is the binding ‘glue’ that forms, strengthens and positively moves the Filipino community, thus rendering it vital and essential to keep on making, promoting and supporting Filipino-made music.  Moreover, it contributes to the vibrant music movement happening in the entire Asian region affecting the lives of its people.

Thank you for this honor bestowed upon me. Thank you to the board of trustees. I share this award with all my colleagues in the music industry who tirelessly give their time to help accomplish our goal of discovering and training future generations of creative songwriters; and to writing new works to contribute to the music literature of our country and of the world.

South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates among the world’s developed countries.  The incidence of teenage suicides is particularly disturbing.  Official statistics indicated that in 2005 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the suicide rate among middle and high school students stood at 7.6 students per 100,000.  The causal factors are complex but what stands out is that more than half of the suicides were directly related to school bullying.

In 1995, KIM JONG-KI was a highly successful businessman handling market operations in China for a giant Korean electronics company.  Married, with a son and daughter, he was at the height of his career when tragedy struck.  He was traveling in China when he learned that his sixteen-year-old son, Dae-hyun, had committed suicide, leaving no clues as to the reason; JONG-KI would learn later from Dae-hyun’s friends that it was bullying in school that drove him to end his life.  The suicide devastated the family. It was no consolation to them that bullying and school violence were not recognized as life-threatening problems by the government or Korean society. Worse, those who repeatedly inflicted violence on his son continued to bully others. Heartbroken, JONG-KI knew he had to do something to channel his grief and to prevent similar youth tragedies.

In the year his son died, JONG-KI established the Foundation for Preventing Youth Violence (FPYV), the first organized effort in South Korea to address school violence as a systemic social problem affecting students, families, schools, and the community-at-large.  At that time, there were no means in the country for JONG-KI to complain and seek help.  There was little public awareness of the scale and seriousness of school violence—even the term was not recognized. School violence was regarded as mere fighting, normal among teenagers.  Government and schools did not want public attention on the issue; victims and their parents were afraid, or just did not want to speak out.  FPYV’s initial activity was to hold a press conference where JONG-KI spoke candidly about Dae-hyun’s suicide and the bullying that triggered it; this was the very first time the problem of youth violence and its destructive consequences was bravely acknowledged in public.

Over the next twenty-four years, JONG-KI and his staff painstakingly developed a holistic program of detection, protection, and management in youth violence.  Under JONG-KI’s committed leadership, FPYV carried out wide-ranging anti-bullying campaigns which included seminars, rallies, concerts and films; operated a hotline which now takes thirty to fifty calls daily, with the capacity to dispatch staff to respond to urgent cases, and lobbied for needed government policy and legislation.  After ten years, a law on the prevention and handling of school violence was finally enacted in 2004.  Today, FPYV offers counseling and mediation services nationwide in partnership with Korea’s Ministry of Education.  Its pioneering dispute mediation and reconciliation program pays as much attention to reforming bullies and healing families as it does to protecting victims. Its educational initiatives include a campaign against cyber bullying through a “digital citizenship” program.  In 2010, it started an institute offering both onsite and online certificate training programs on youth violence prevention, detection, and management that has since certified thousands of teachers, parents, counselors, police officers, and others.

The impact of JONG-KI and FPYV on Korean society has been profound, establishing a nationwide presence and creating collective action on a social problem hitherto neglected.  A 2018 survey showed that since FPYV started its campaign in 1995, the incidence of school violence has dropped from twenty percent to three percent. Yet JONG-KI knows that there is still much work to be done, even as he explains his work simply, “It was God’s command that I contribute my life to this cause.  It is my promise to my son.”  It is a promise he has fulfilled not only to his son but to the good of all of Korea’s youth.

In electing KIM JONG-KI to receive the 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes his quiet courage in transforming private grief into a mission to protect Korea’s youth from the scourge of bullying and violence, his unstinting dedication to the goal of instilling among the young the values of self-esteem, tolerance, and mutual respect, and his effectively mobilizing all sectors of the country in a nationwide drive that has transformed both policy and behaviors towards building a gentler, non-violent society.

I am so grateful to receive such an honorable and prestigious award. This award is the greatest comfort and reward in my life.

I used to be a businessman: someone who was tied to work and neglected his family. In my generation, everyone worked very hard. No one had time for their families, and I was like that, too.  Then, one day, I lost my beloved son. He ended up taking his own life, as he was unable to bear violence in school. Suddenly, I became the most miserable father in the world.  The shock and sorrow of losing my son drove my family to despair.

Wishing for forgiveness from my son and taking responsibility for my son’s death, I left my job and got into solving problems for the youth. I started with raising awareness on the reality of school violence and providing counseling for students and families who suffered from it. However, we faced huge challenges from the beginning—not only the absence of experts or studies on school violence but also the disapproval of education authorities made our work more difficult. But, I could not stop because it was the promise I made to my son.

Since then, I have never looked back and dedicated all my energies and fortune to changing the perception and responses toward school violence with unceasing determination. I led a nationwide campaign to gather signatures, receiving support from 470,000 citizens urging the law’s passage. This resulted in the Special Act on Preventing School Violence made into law in 2004. The law put strong pressure on government authorities and schools to take proper action. Finally, we were able to make positive changes, such as reducing school violence through various campaigns and legislation. Also, education authorities started to build nationwide measures and systems. I am very proud of these achievements. The work that started from my personal sorrow finally made a difference in the Korean education system and society.

Our organization is dedicated to providing counseling, educating teachers and police officers, leading non-violence campaigns, scholarship projects, and international activities. We started with only five people; now, we have 340 staff members nationwide. Also, the rate of school violence has dropped from 20% to 6% in the last twenty-four years. Our organization pursues the values of sincerity, professionalism, and transparency. As it grew to be a leading NGO specializing in youth problems, I am proud that we have contributed to Korean society.

I have gone through extreme hardships but poured out my passion, personal resources and connections to fulfill my goals. Management skills I obtained from my previous work also helped. To be honest, there were many times I wanted to give up, but it was my promise to my son. I finally found peace of mind, as I took this work as my destiny and mission from God. As society becomes more industrialized and materialistic, school violence perpetrators and victims are getting younger. And with the internet, incidents of cyber and sexual violence are on the rise. We have to gather our wisdom and efforts to protect our children.

Though this award is given to me, I would like to share the honor and prize with our dedicated staff and respectable supporters and volunteers. Taking this award as a stepping stone, I will dedicate myself to making a non-violent environment not only for students but also all human beings.

I thank every single person in the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation. Special thanks to my friends who came here with me all the way from Korea, the Board of Directors of my organization and my loving wife who has sacrificed everything for me.

I am sure my son is smiling at me from heaven. Thank you very much.

The world’s largest democracy, India has seen the space for an independent and responsible Indian press shrink over the past years.  The factors behind this are many: a changing media landscape because of new information technologies, the increased marketization of news and opinions, growing government control, and, most worrisome, the rise of popular authoritarianism and religious, ethnic, and nationalist fundamentalisms with their consequent divisiveness, intolerance, and susceptibilities to violence.

An important voice against these threats is television journalist RAVISH KUMAR. Raised in Jitwarpur village in Hindi-speaking Bihar, northeast India, RAVISH pursued his early interest in history and public affairs through postgraduate studies in history from Delhi University. In 1996, he joined New Delhi Television Network (NDTV), one of India’s leading TV networks and worked his way up from being a field reporter. After NDTV launched its 24-hour Hindi-language news channel—NDTV India—targeting the country’s 422 million native speakers of Hindi, he was given his own daily show, “Prime Time.”  Today, as NDTV India’s managing editor, RAVISH is one of India’s most influential TV journalists.

His more important distinction, however, comes from the kind of journalism he represents.  In a media environment threatened by an interventionist state, toxic with jingoist partisans, trolls and purveyors of “fake news,” and where the competition for market ratings has put the premium on “media personalities,” “tabloidization,” and audience-pandering sensationalism, RAVISH has been most vocal on insisting that the professional values of sober, balanced, fact-based reporting be upheld in practice.  His “Prime Time” program on NDTV India takes up current social issues; does serious background research; and presents issues in well-rounded discussions that can run up to twenty or more episodes.  The program deals with real-life, under-reported problems of ordinary people — from the lives of manual scavengers and rickshaw-pullers to the plight of government employees and displaced farmers, to underfunded state schools and the inefficient railway system.  RAVISH interacts easily with the poor, travels extensively, and uses social media to stay in touch with his audience, generating from them the stories for his program.  Striving for a people-based journalism, he calls his newsroom “the people’s newsroom.”

RAVISH is not above engaging in some theatrics himself if he feels it effective, as in an innovative show he did in 2016 to dramatize how debased the discourse had become on TV news programs.  The show opens with RAVISH coming on screen to talk to the viewers about how TV news programs had descended into a “dark world” of angry, strident voices.  The screen then goes dark and, for the next hour, there is nothing but a cacophonous audio of sound bites from actual TV programs, venomous threats, hysterical rants, the sounds of a mob baying for the blood of enemies. For RAVISH, it is always about the message, dispassionately delivered.

As an anchor, RAVISH is sober, incisive, and well-informed.  He does not dominate his guests but affords them the chance to express themselves.  He does not balk, however, at calling the highest officials to account or criticizing media and the state of public discourse in the country; for this reason, he has been harassed and threatened by rabid partisans of one kind or another. Through all the perils and aggravations, RAVISH has remained consistent in his effort to preserve and widen the space for a critical, socially responsible media.  Keeping faith with a journalism that puts service to the people at its center, RAVISH sums up what he believes a journalist is in the most basic terms: “If you have become the voice of the people, you are a journalist.”

In electing RAVISH KUMAR to receive the 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes his unfaltering commitment to a professional, ethical journalism of the highest standards; his moral courage in standing up for truth, integrity, and independence; and his principled belief that it is in giving full and respectful voice to the voiceless, in speaking truth bravely yet soberly to power, that journalism fulfills its noblest aims to advance democracy.

My world has changed since the announcement of the Ramon Magsaysay Award. Your hospitality has been overwhelming since I landed in Manila; the warmth and affection I have received from the foundation is no less than the honor conferred upon me. You invited me as a guest and made me feel at home; now I feel like a part of your family. Usually award ceremonies are brief affairs but this is different. It has been a humbling experience and makes me feel more responsible than before.

Inequality is mostly measured in terms of health and economy, but the time has come for us to take cognizance of knowledge inequality as well. When resources for quality knowledge have become confined to a few cities, we cannot even begin to imagine what are the repercussions of this inequality in smaller towns and villages. Clearly, the source of knowledge for a vast multitude is the propaganda machine of WhatsApp university. One cannot entirely blame today’s youth since they have been denied quality education and information. It becomes all the more important to evaluate the crisis of the media in this context. If media too begins to function like the WhatsApp university with fake news and fake knowledge, what then would be the consequences for society?  It is a good sign that India’s citizens have begun to understand this. That is why the congratulatory messages that I am receiving are also replete with worries on how the media has turned rogue.

Therefore, while I am happy for myself today I am also filled with sadness looking at the state of the profession I represent.

Indian media is in a state of crisis and this crisis is not accidental or random but systemic and structural. Being a journalist has become a solitary endeavor as uncompromising journalists find themselves being forced out of their jobs by news organizations. Nevertheless, it is heartening to see that there are still some who continue to put their lives and careers at risk to practice honest and meaningful journalism. Some women journalists are speaking out and managing to survive on freelance earning. With the internet still shut down in Kashmir, most major news channels went along with government’s stand. Yet, there are some who have dared to report from within that shutdown and face the wrath of the army of trolls.  While institutional journalism is facing a crisis, individual journalists are struggling to survive and question authority.

Can we restore the sanctity of the news? I do hope audiences will once again realize the value of truthfulness in reporting, and the diversity of voices and opinions.  Because a democracy can thrive only as long as its news is truthful. I accept the Ramon Magsaysay Award; I accept it on behalf of all those readers and viewers who continue to live in areas of knowledge inequality but have a thirst for good and truthful information and knowledge. Many young journalists realize this challenge. I am confident that in times to come, they will be able to restore the meaning of true journalism. It is possible that they may lose the battle, but sometimes resistance is not a matter of choice. Not all battles are fought for victory—some are fought simply to tell the world that someone was there on the battlefield. I accept this award on behalf of all such journalists.

A predominantly Muslim region in a staunchly Buddhist country, southern Thailand has struggled with religious and ethnic conflict since a separatist insurgency rocked the region in 1948.  Insurgency and militarization have exacted a heavy toll: it is reported that of the more than 6,000 people killed in the conflict since 2004, some ninety percent of these were civilians. These deaths have included the unsolved killings of more than thirty civil society and human rights activists.  One of the more sensational of these killings was the “enforced disappearance” in 2004 of noted human rights lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit, who was abducted in Bangkok the day after he had publicly accused the military of torturing detainees in southern Thailand.

Somchai’s enforced disappearance and subsequent death was a tragic blow to the cause of human rights in the country, and a devastating personal nightmare for his family.  But it would also be the beginning of a remarkable journey for Somchai’s widow, ANGKHANA NEELAPAIJIT, herself a Muslim Thai of humble origins. When her husband “disappeared” ANGKHANA was a housewife looking after their five young children and a small business. Thrust into a dangerous and public controversy, she valiantly worked to bring the police officers involved to trial, but due to a flawed justice system they were acquitted.  Despite the death threats she received, ANGKHANA continued to seek justice for her husband and other human rights victims.  She applied herself to learning the laws, filing legal appeals, and navigating the Thai legal system.  She bonded with other victims, and worked with civil society groups in and outside Thailand.

In 2009, with the help of non-government organizations and her own family, ANGKHANA founded Justice for Peace Foundation (JPF), a network of human rights and peace advocates that has done important work in documenting the human rights situation in southern Thailand, thus raising public awareness and putting pressure on government to act on human rights cases; providing legal assistance to victims; and training women on human rights and the peace process.  In a vital initiative, JPF and other groups pushed for laws that will criminalize torture and enforced disappearances (current Thai law recognizes murder only if the body could be found). Their steadfast lobbying succeeded in getting the Thai government to sign and ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture in 2007, and the Convention to Protect All Persons from Enforced Disappearance in 2012—already major victories even though the implementing rules have yet to be issued.

In 2015, ANGKHANA was named commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand, the only commission member with grassroots human rights experience.  Despite the skepticism of government critics, ANGKHANA has taken her appointment seriously, firmly committed to taking the peaceful, legal approach to fighting human rights abuses and to doing what she can in “pushing the limits.”  Quietly non-confrontational, she does not waver in speaking her mind against injustice. As commissioner, she has successfully interceded with the authorities for detainees to have access to lawyers and their families, and for victims to get financial compensation.  She firmly took action on cases of arbitrary arrest and detention and the exercise of freedom of expression and assembly.  She has widened her advocacy to address problems like forced child marriages, trafficking of women, and the rights of asylum seekers and refugees.  ANGKHANA’s term as commissioner ended in July 2019, but there is no doubt she will remain involved in human rights advocacy.  This is for her a deeply personal advocacy.

People have marveled at the transformation of this self-effacing housewife into a leading human rights defender.  But ANGKHANA herself is not surprised.  In her soft-spoken and measured tone she asserts: “Most women experience conflict and violence in a different way than men.  They also develop unique skills for resisting, addressing and preventing conflict.  The work on justice and peace cannot afford to neglect the constructive contributions of women.”

In electing ANGKHANA NEELAPAIJIT to receive the 2019 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes her unwavering courage in seeking justice for her husband and many other victims of violence and conflict in southern Thailand; her systematic, unflagging work to reform a flawed and unfair legal system, and the shining she is proof that the humblest ordinary person can achieve national impact in deterring human rights abuses.

Today is one of the biggest days of my life. I am truly humbled and proud to stand before such honorable guests to accept the Ramon Magsaysay Award. I would like to express my sincerest appreciation and thanks to the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for this honor.

For me, the honor I receive today is not a symbol of victory, or the end of my and other survivors’ struggles for rights and justice. It represents a recognition of the continuing struggle for human rights, justice, freedom, democracy and the rule of law of all survivors of human rights abuses in my country and in our region. Also, it means that the voice of victims should be heard.

As a survivor of a human rights violation and a woman human rights defender, I realize that rights, dignity and human values are very important to all human beings. The continuation of the culture of impunity, militarization, failure of the justice system and the social acceptance of those violations are crucial contexts that have kept many victims live in suffering and fear.

While leading a civil society organization, I had the opportunity to work with many vulnerable groups, especially the vulnerable of the vulnerable such as victims of human rights violations in Southern Thailand, most of whom are women, refugees and asylum seekers or grievous women who are victims of gender-based violence. As a former human rights commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand, I had the opportunity to work mostly on civil and political rights and women’s rights. I found that many human rights challenges faced by Thailand and other Asian countries—such as violent extremism, poverty, refugee crisis, absence or lack of freedom of expression—are only the tip of the iceberg.

Colleagues, history tells us again and again of the impact that ordinary heroes bring. Extraordinary in their courage, determination and commitment they serve as evidence that every one of us can make a difference to stand for what is right and just. Each and every one of us has a choice to work to promote the upside rather than the downside of humanity. We all have a sense of responsibility towards each other to respect our diversities while protecting our equality. All of us have a hero inside us that is able to recognize the beauty in all of humanity.

Again, I would like to thank the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation for this prestigious award. Thank you, too, to my colleagues and friends who have always supported me in my work as a WHRDs and a human rights commissioner. Last but not least, special thanks to my family, my father and my children who always stand by me and trust in everything I do.

My honor today as Magsaysay awardee has shown the story of an ordinary woman’s struggle for justice, democracy and the rule of law and—this is a big change for women, for families and for the nation.